1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a apparatus for removing or pulling a propeller hub from a drive shaft, and more particularly for removing the hub of a folding propeller assembly from a drive shaft.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Folding propellers for sailboats and similar craft are attached to the propeller drive shaft in a manner that is sufficiently different from the mounting of a fixed blade propeller that the means employed to remove or pull fixed blade propellers are not completely satisfactory for removing the hub of a folding propeller. The typical puller used is a coventional automobile wheel puller which comprises two or more elongated bars having inwardly directed ends to engage or hook upon the inner end of the propeller hub. The opposite ends of the bars are pivoted upon a cross member which threadably carries an elongated threaded element engageable with the propeller drive shaft.
Rotation of the threaded puller element is adapted to axially move the hub relative to the drive shaft, "popping" or separating the locking taper of the hub from the shaft.
The standard wheel puller just described is relatively unwieldy and awkward to operate, particularly since hub removal is often done with the boat in the water. However, its most serious shortcoming is that the level of separating force developed just prior to hub separation is so great that the release of this force upon separation is sudden, often resulting in rapid outward axial movement of the hub. If the person pulling the hub is startled or made apprehensive by the sudden hub separation, he may not catch the separated hub and it will drop to the sea bottom along with the puller.